CoxHealth offers tool to detect lung cancer

Posted by Kaitlyn McConnell on Sept. 9, 2019

While
a variety of cancer-screening tools – such as mammograms and colonoscopies –
have been developed in recent years, few resources have been available to help
detect lung cancer in its early stages.

CoxHealth, however, has been certified
as an ACR Lung Cancer Screening Center, and is now offering a lung cancer
screening program that will help longtime smokers have a better chance of
survival through early detection.

“Lung
cancer is a leading cancer killer in the United States, and kills more than
colorectal, breast and prostate cancers combined,” Dr. Abe Abdalla, director of
Radiation Oncology at CoxHealth. “In the past, by the time the cancer’s
symptoms were obvious, it had become advanced and was difficult to treat. We
believe that this new initiative will help save lives when coupled with state- of-the-art treatment and smoking cessation.”

The
program is based around a low-dose CT scan of the lungs, which can identify lung nodules that may not be detected on traditional chest X-rays.
Recommended follow-up is based on the results, reported by the
radiologists, and will be sent to the patient’s physician.

Lung
cancer screening participants are encouraged to repeat the CT scan annually for
a minimum of three years, as long as they meet eligibility requirements, for
maximum benefit for early lung cancer detection.

Requirements
include:

· - Age
55 to 77

· - Current
smoker, or smoker who has quit within the last 15 years

· - No
prior history of lung cancer or treatment of other cancer in the past five
years